Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-07-04-Speech-2-060"
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"en.20000704.3.2-060"2
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Madam President, ladies and gentlemen of the European Parliament, thank you for welcoming me here today. Since 1 July, France has held the presidency of the Council of the European Union, and I shall be chairing the meetings of the European Council on two occasions. I therefore thought it appropriate to present the priorities of the French Presidency to this House.
I had the opportunity to express my views on this subject last week. My comments were intended to shed light on the future and to express what the Europe of tomorrow could and should be. They, of course, extend beyond the limits of the French Presidency of the European Union. One thing is clear, however, and I stressed this in Berlin: all further progress of the European Union is conditional upon the success of the institutional reform. If the IGC were not successful, then it would be pointless to consider the next stages.
The French authorities are fully aware of the responsibility they bear in this respect and they are approaching this presidency with the ambition to achieve progress or a successful conclusion in all the matters impacting on future development. They shall do so with a commitment to safeguard, and improve, that which gives our whole project meaning: the protection of fundamental values and the respect of national and cultural identities, the continual determination to reconcile economic performance and social progress and to fulfil the practical expectations of the citizens, and the strengthening of Europe’s role as a major player on the international scene.
This is the spirit in which France intends to take forward the remarkable work achieved by the Portuguese Presidency, in close liaison with the Swedish Presidency which is to follow us on 1 January next year.
We have outlined four objectives for this six-month period: firstly, to make the European Union ready for enlargement, next, to place Europe more at the service of growth, employment and social progress, to bring the European Union closer to the citizens in order to drive the message of our shared project home, and finally, to affirm Europe’s position in the world.
The Presidency’s first focus is on making preparations for the future of Europe, post-enlargement. As I said, the reform of the European institutions is one of the primary issues of our presidency. Let us not make the mistake of underestimating the importance of the matters on the agenda. The composition of the Commission, revision of the weighting of votes and the extension of qualified majority voting are all of critical importance given the prospect of the enlarged Europe. If we do not manage to resolve these matters, the European Union will be sentenced to paralysis in the short term, and I am convinced that all the Member States are aware of this and are in favour of finding solutions.
The French Presidency is also determined to make progress on the matter of intensified cooperation, which was added to the IGC agenda at the Feira European Council. The objective is not to set the divisions between Europeans in stone, but rather to introduce greater flexibility into the operation of the enlarged European Union by allowing those who wish to do so to travel more quickly along the common path.
You may rest assured that we shall provide ourselves with all the necessary means to make a success of these negotiations, in which the European Parliament will, of course, continue to be very closely involved. The European Council in Biarritz, two months before the Nice Council, will be an informal summit, chiefly devoted to institutional reform. It should give the necessary impetus for an agreement to be signed in December, an agreement which is worthy of the importance of the issues involved. None of us, neither you nor us, can be content with a minimum agreement.
Reform of the institutions will pave the way for enlargement of the European Union. I am, as you know, a staunch supporter of enlargement. It will be an achievement for peace and democracy in our continent, and it will make the European Union all the stronger. The French Presidency is, therefore, determined to achieve real progress in the accession negotiations with all the candidate countries, based on their individual merits and implementing the principle of differentiation. Our objective at the European Council in Nice is to arrive at as comprehensive as possible an overview of the state of negotiations, in order to provide effective guidance for the work of future presidencies and to clearly signpost the route to accession. Bilateral dialogue with the candidate countries will, moreover, be stepped up, and dialogue will also be emphasised in the European conference of Heads of State and Government which I shall be convening in Nice prior to the European Council.
Last winter, when I was invited to participate in the inauguration of this new Chamber, I made a commitment to involving Parliament fully in the work of our presidency. I think it natural and necessary to conduct discussions and debates within the European Union in close collaboration with the men and women that represent the citizens, the men and women elected by the people of Europe, who have the task of representing their opinions in the debate on the future of Europe.
The second focus of the French Presidency is a Europe at the service of growth, employment and social progress. Opting for the euro means opting for growth and employment. It is a success. We can already see the positive effects in all the countries of the European Union. Coordinating our monetary policies, however, must necessarily be accompanied by serious social ambitions and improved coordination of our economic policies. For many long years, France has been putting the case for employment to be the focus of the concerns of the European Union and the central objective of its policies.
Therefore, the French Presidency, represented in particular by Mr Hubert Védrine, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Mr Pierre Moscovici, Minister of State for European Affairs, intends to maintain an ongoing open dialogue with Parliament. The citizens of Europe want more transparency in the operation of the European institutions. The time when decisions could be taken behind closed doors has passed. Nowadays, discussions within the European Union must take place in the light of day and, of course, here in the European Parliament.
We shall also be working hand in hand with the European Commission. I should like today to express my confidence in and support for Mr Romano Prodi, the European Commissioners and all the parties cooperating with the Commission. Having come into office in quite exceptional circumstances, they have managed to lay the foundations for a radical reform which will bear fruit in the future.
Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, just fifty years ago the ‘Schuman declaration’ laid the foundations for the building of Europe, undertaking primarily to reconcile Germany and France. I should, at this point, like to pay tribute to the memory of one of the great and ardent Europeans who paved the way for Europe, Pierre Pflimlin. He devoted his life to France, of course, and Europe, a bold and noble idea of Europe. This House acknowledged his commitment by electing him its president. We have lost a great and fine figure in this venture we are all involved in.
Ladies and gentlemen, half a century of European construction has given rise to a profoundly original European Union, based on the common will of the nations which make up that Union, and today we clearly feel that we are entering a new phase in the history of European construction, which has already brought us peace, economic success and social progress.
The fine and necessary project of enlargement is going to change the European Union, its modus operandi and, perhaps, even its very nature, at a time when it is intensifying its political dimension.
At the same time, as the areas in which the European Union is becoming involved are expanding, the citizens are demanding, quite rightly, that it should be more democratic, more transparent and more efficient, and that it should be more diligent in respecting the principle of subsidiarity.
The debate on the future of Europe has thus been launched, and this is good news because is it essential in crucial periods to look further than the immediate concerns and time limits, and to set the course for the future."@en1
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